Nanoscale researcher Kallie Willets joins Penn State chemistry
The Penn State Department of Chemistry welcomes Katherine "Kallie" Willets to its faculty. Willets is a highly respected analytical and physical chemist known for developing innovative spectroscopy and electrochemical microscopy tools that reveal how nanoscale differences in a material’s structure, shape, size and composition can influence its properties and behavior.
Her research explores how metals such as gold and silver behave at the nanoscale, particularly how they interact with light, and has advanced fundamental understanding of plasmonic nanoparticles, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, single-molecule and super-resolution imaging, catalysis, and energy conversion.
Willets has published more than 100 papers in some of the leading chemistry journals and has attracted major competitive research support from the U.S. National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and other federal agencies. Most notably, she serves as the associate director of the NSF-funded Center for Single-Entity Nanochemistry and Nanocrystal Design (CSENND), a center supported by approximately $20 million in NSF funding.
Willets’s addition to the faculty solidifies the status of Penn State’s Department of Chemistry as a world leader in the area of nanoscale materials chemistry and structurally defined materials, according to Kenneth Knappenberger Jr., department head and professor of chemistry and professor of physics.
“Kallie is joining our department at a significant time,” Knappenberger said. “Penn State has long been a leader in materials chemistry. We have been strategic in leveraging that strength to build and lead in the area of structural precise nanomaterials. Her expertise will add a key piece to a world-renowned group of nanochemists whose research advances fundamental science as well as technological applications in catalysis, energy conversion, optoelectronics, sensing, quantum information sciences, electronics, chemical manufacturing and many other areas.”
In addition to Knappenberger, she joins current Penn State Chemistry faculty Rongchao Jin, Lasse Jensen, Benjamin Lear, and Raymond Schaak, who are leaders in understanding energy flow, spin, and quantum properties of atomically and structurally precise nanostructures.
Kallie’s scientific reputation is matched by national recognition for leadership, including service as associate editor at ACS Nano; mentoring; and outreach and education, working with local teachers and students and inviting them into the lab to experience nanoscience firsthand,” Knappenberger noted. “She joins a department, college, and University with a matching land-grant mission dedicated to public outreach.”
Willets has been recognized with an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, a Department of Energy Early Career Award, a UT Regents Outstanding Teacher Award, a Natural Sciences Foundation Advisory Council Teaching Excellence Award, and the Dean’s Distinguished Excellence in Mentoring Award. She served as a member of the Defense Science Study Group from 2016 to 2017 and is a trained facilitator for the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER).
She is currently a professor of chemistry at Temple University and will be joining the Penn State Chemistry faculty in January 2027. Prior to joining Temple, she was at the University of Texas at Austin from 2007 to 2015. She earned her doctoral degree in chemistry from Stanford University in 2005 and was a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University from 2005 to 2007.